When I decided to build my online portfolio, I could have done what most people do pick a template, add a few projects, and hope Google notices. I took a different approach. Before writing a single line of content, I asked myself one question: is my site actually built to be found?
Here are the three decisions I took that changed everything.
Decision 1 : Combining a Portfolio and a Blog from Day One
The first decision was to not choose between the two.
A portfolio alone tells people what you can do. A blog alone tells people how you think. Together, they create something stronger: a space that reflects both your competence and your reasoning process.
From an SEO standpoint, it is also the obvious strategic move. A static portfolio produces no new content. A regularly updated blog does. And search engines index what exists the broader the content surface, the more opportunities there are to be discovered.
So I designed the site with both from the very beginning. Not as two separate sections, but as a coherent whole that reflects who I am professionally.
Decision 2 : Migrating from Lovable to Next.js for SEO Performance
This is the most technical decision and the one that reveals the most about how I approach problems.
I started this project with Lovable. It is a great tool for moving fast: you can lay out the design without writing code and see something take shape quickly. I also used Google AI Studio to assist with the visual side and I still think that combination is genuinely useful when prototyping an idea.
But the free version of Lovable quickly introduced constraints. Waiting, depending on the platform, limited flexibility, it was frustrating. And more importantly for SEO, I needed things Lovable did not easily provide: Server-Side Rendering (SSR), control over metadata, and optimised performance.
Think of SSR like a mail carrier delivering a fully written letter instead of an empty envelope. Rather than sending search engines a blank page that fills in on the client side, you send them the complete content upfront ready to read, index, and understand.
Next.js gave me that control. The migration took time, but it turned the site from a prototype into a technical foundation built for long-term growth.
Decision 3 : Planning Content Before Publishing Anything
The third decision is the least visible, but it shapes everything else.
Rather than publishing to fill space, I first defined: which topics will I cover? What is my editorial positioning? What value does each article bring to someone discovering me for the first time?
A blog without a content strategy is like a library where books are shelved at random. Everything is technically there but nobody finds what they are looking for.
My topics revolve around technical SEO, content strategy, and data-driven thinking. Not because those subjects are trending, but because they reflect what I actually practise and can argue for with concrete reasoning.
What These Three Decisions Have in Common
They were all made before the site was ready. That is the real discipline of SEO: do not wait for traffic before thinking about structure. Do not publish at volume to 'see what works'. Build a solid foundation first, then develop it methodically.
SEO is not a sprint. It is the discipline of making the right decisions at the right moment and the right moment is almost always before anyone visits your site and then adjust as needed when it evolves.